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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 16, 2011

Mark Wilson

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mark Wilson, off to a great start here with two rounds in the 60s at the BMW Championship, in great position heading into the weekend. Maybe some opening comments about two really, really good days for you.
MARK WILSON: Yeah, just everything came pretty easily. I feel at peace out there, I know the golf course, and just trusted my game, bogeyed the first hole, and the first thing that popped in my mind was when I played with Tiger in 2009, he shot 62 after an opening bogey. So obviously my mind is in the right place thinking of stuff like that. I made a bunch of birdies after that, and no, I feel good about going into the weekend.

Q. Can you just -- yesterday you had a great finish on your last hole to gain a shot, and it looked like you saved a shot with a great up-and-down here again. Can you just talk about the way you finished your round both days?
MARK WILSON: Yeah, made a couple really good saves on 13 and 14 and then played 15 the way you're supposed to, just an easy two-putt from the front fringe for birdie, and then actually hit a great shot into 16, should have made birdie there, missed a little one. But 18, hit a great drive and I was in a divot. Wasn't that bad of a lie, but I hit a 5-iron, but wasn't much room to hit it there, and obviously I got a little quick on it making sure I didn't hit it left or catch it -- it was a little sand-filled divot, didn't want to catch it a little heavy. So I hit it over there in the bunker, and it looked like it took one bounce and then plugged in the -- semi-plugged, so it wasn't a great lie, and obviously the water is in the distance and a lot going on. I hit a great shot to just get it to ten feet. And then had a tough putt, too, so I was happy to get that one in because certainly wasn't an easy putt. I kind of played it right edge and it broke in perfect.

Q. I apologize for the obviousness of this question, but are you more comfortable here than probably any other venue that you play over the course of the year given the amount of time you've expended?
MARK WILSON: I guess so. I don't feel like I've played it a ton but just enough that I don't really have to look at the yardage book too much. I do look at certain things. They played a couple tees up. I've never played a tee up, but they've have a couple tees up, like on 13 and then 9 today to maybe entice us to go for it.
But yeah, I know how to get here in the morning, and it just is very simple. Yeah, I know if there's construction there or a hold-up on the bridge I know another way to go. So yeah, I feel very comfortable. Probably the most of any tournament during the year, yes, now that Brown Deer Park is out of the rotation on the PGA TOUR.

Q. How about the up-and-down at 14? That was an eye-catcher there.
MARK WILSON: That was one of my all-time best, I think, yeah. Off a downslope, had to go over the bunker and had a little green to work with, but I honestly was trying to fly it about 15 feet on the green and trying to make a 20-footer coming back. I got under it just a little more than I was expecting, and that's kind of why I aimed it cautiously, and then I looked like a genius. It almost went in, and rolled in a five-footer. So that definitely goes on my all-time best list.

Q. Right now there are six players with multiple wins on the PGA TOUR this year and no one with more than two. Your name hasn't come up too much in the Player of the Year discussion, but you already have two. If you get one this week, do you think you're right there?
MARK WILSON: I do, yeah. That would put me with the most wins of anybody, and then going into East Lake if I can get another one there, I think I'd have a good argument. That's a lot of ifs. Should I say when? The game is fickle, you never know. I've played great so far. There's a lot of great players out here, but I feel like I'm playing very close to the same form I had when I started the year out. My mind is in a better place, and I'm just kind of accepting the results; whatever happens, happens. But yeah, I would definitely put myself in there. Certainly not right now, but I need at least one more win, two more wins to probably be in that discussion.

Q. What is that alternate route if there's traffic on the bridge?
MARK WILSON: Yeah, I go left out of the club and then left out that back road and then Lemont Road and work my way up that way.

Q. How many times have you played this course?
MARK WILSON: Well, first time I played, I played a junior tournament here, was it the Chick Evans I think they had a long time ago? Is that what it was called? I was 15. That's the first time I played it. And then obviously didn't have any roots to Chicago at all until I met my future wife. So I would say probably 100 times. Yeah, I mean, I've played how many tournaments here now, '04, '05, '06, '07, '09, so right there that's already six rounds there each year, so I'd say around 100.

Q. How big a contingent do you think you had following you today, your people, and how much can it grow over the weekend?
MARK WILSON: Yeah, it seemed like I would say that there were -- people that I actually know by name, there had to be probably 100, and then it seemed like there were other people yelling "Elmhurst," "go Elmhurst," things like that. It's nice to have the crowd behind you. It could get better. It's obviously an early start tomorrow. I don't know if the fans realize that. College football is big. Hunter and I were talking, when do the Bears play this weekend? Are they playing on Sunday at noon?

Q. In New Orleans.
MARK WILSON: Obviously a lot of people are going to want that watch that game. But hopefully my dear fans will come out and cheer me on instead of the Bears for one week.

Q. You were talking about your form being sort of on the same level as the beginning of the year. At that time you were talking about how much you preferred to fly under the radar, which obviously you can't do from this point on.
MARK WILSON: I still am. What do you mean? You just talked about how I'm not in the discussion for Player of the Year.

Q. Yeah, but you would be, and plus there would probably be a lot more attention paid to it now I would suspect.
MARK WILSON: Yeah, I was obviously doing more of these things and people wanted to talk to me before tournaments started say on the West Coast, but it died down quick. I still was leading the FedExCup into April, and I was still pretty much -- yeah, I guess I got more TV time. I was in those pairings on Thursday and Friday on The Golf Channel, so that was good for me, made me feel more comfortable about that. So I still feel like I'm a little under the radar. I don't think I'm a player that people talk about at the beginning of the week at all as a favorite, but hopefully I can keep playing like this and I'll change that.

Q. On 16, you don't miss a lot of putts at that length, right?
MARK WILSON: I don't, no. I actually probably already counted it. I kind of got a little ahead of myself. But I go through the process, and every once in a while something flukey like that happens. I've made my fair share so far, but yeah, that was a shock when it missed the hole. I wasn't expecting that.

Q. I think in some ways do you feel like you might have in these discussions been penalized for winning too early in the season, two of the first three starts you had?
MARK WILSON: How would I be penalized?

Q. In the discussion.
MARK WILSON: Right, you kind of forget about it, right. That's probably true, you're right. People think about what have you done for me lately on the PGA TOUR all the time. Those wins early obviously count just as much in the regular season as say a win at Greensboro or something like that. But yeah, hoping to have bookends to the year, two to start and two to finish.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mark Wilson, thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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